192 



METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



the feet so that a thread can be cut on the rods, to receive a nut, which 

 depends entirely on the thickness of the pedestal on which the coyote 

 is to be mounted. Also allow the wires in all of the legs to project 

 far enough above the ends of the femur and humerus so that they can 

 be anchored into the center board and firmly fastened by means of 

 staples on the opposite side of the board. This is not all, the wires 

 must be left long enough to be bent at a right angle down on the 

 board and the same distance between the two femora and the two 

 humeri as when they were attached lo the pelvis and shoulder blade 

 must be calculated upon. This can be done by taking accurate 

 measurements beforehand from the carcass after skinning, or from 

 a skeleton. The wires which have been bent along the back of each 

 of the leg bones will serve as patterns by which to make their coun- 

 terparts in iron rods. The iron rods should be one-fourth inch in 

 thickness and should be bent and made the exact shape of the wire 

 patterns. Now insert them in the leg skin, tie them fast to the bones 

 and begin to replace the muscles of the legs with tow precisely as you 

 have done in the legs of the squirrel, wrapping and binding the tow 

 down with cord. 



The tendon of Achilles forms over the heel; between it and the 

 lower end of the tibia there is always a deep hollow where the skin of 

 both sides touches. It is very pronounced in the large and the short- 

 haired mammals. This may be nicely imitated by drilling a hole in 

 the end of the calcaneum, and, by winding a copper wire with tow to 

 the thickness of the_ tendon, fasten one end of this artificial tendon in 

 the hole you have drilled, and the other end half way up to the knee 

 on the tibia. This is clearly shown in C. C. Plate LII. Having 

 imitated the muscles of the legs in tow, with the leg irons in their 

 places, we shall now begin to make the center board. Lay the 

 skin out full length on the work bench and allow the leg irons 

 to cross each other where they naturally will inside the skin, as 

 seen in the squirrel skin, Plate XLV. In order to form an idea of 

 the center board we shall examine the one in the first steps in the 

 structure on which we mount the greyhound, Plate LII. The center 

 board we are about to make, however, is very much different^ being in a 

 single piece, much narrower, about four and one-half inches wide for our 

 coyote, of tough wood and rounded or oval at both ends. It is simply 

 a slender bar of wood, arouud which you can easily work while filling 

 the body skin. Now give the skin of the head a heavy coating of 

 arsenical paste. The ears having been skinned to their tips and the 

 cartilage removed, it must be imitated with sheet copper or lead cut 



